Philosophy by the Way

Random quote Digitalisation weakens the community bond insofar as it has a debodying effect. Digital communication is debodied communicatio...

Galileo Thermometer The questions whether it is possible to explain actions by causes, be it regular causes or one-time causes, and whether ...

Random quote The principle of Custom or Habit: [W]herever the repetition of any particular act or operation produces a propensity to renew ...

Photo taken by me at the Strassenindustriemuseum-in Ennepetal, Germany According to Hume, causation (causality) refers to regular connection...

Random quote Museums function like homes of the nobility to which the public at certain hours are admitted as visitors. The class nature of...

Taken by me at the Strassenindustriemuseum-in Ennepetal, Germany We have seen in my blog last week that causation is not only in the mind, a...

Random quote [T]hey say that everyone should claim to be just, regardless of whether they are or are not, and anyone who is not pretending ...

Taken by me at the Strassenindustriemuseum-in Ennepetal, Germany Causation is only in the mind. That is what Hume thinks, as we have seen in...

Random quote [T]he philosopher … is always, so far as he is able, in communion through memory with those things the communion with which ca...

Barrel Organ "The Arab", once the most famous barrel organ in the Netherlands Photo taken by me in the Museum Speelklok, Utrecht, ...

Random quote What if one person or some oligarchy or indeed a democracy, were possessed of a soul that hungers for pleasures and passions, ...

Lately, someone asked me what I think happiness is. I had forgotten that once I had written a blog about it, but essentially my answer was ...

Random quote Clogs – “floppies,” slippers – are made so that one can slip them on one’s feet without using the hands. They are monuments to...

One of the most important contributions of David Hume (1711-1776) to philosophy is his view on causation. In several respects it is controve...

Random quote A young tree, which over-tops and destroys its parent, stands in all the same relations with Nero, when he murdered Agrippina;...

Football is not only a game. Football is life. I think that everybody will agree. Maybe in the past football was only a game, but in present...

Source of the stamp Random quote Be resolved not to serve any more, and you will be free. Tyrants are great only because we are on our knee....

Currently, the football world championship for the FIFA World Cup is taking place. In view of the contradictions between the nations, someti...

Random quote If either a single person or an oligarchy or a democracy has a soul eager after pleasures and desires—wanting to be filled wit...

Plato and Pinocchio Are politicians allowed to lie to convince the people of what they see as a good thing for everybody? That is something ...

Random quote Conquest is as far from setting up any government, as demolishing an house is from building a new one in the place. Indeed, it...

Sunset seen from a moving train You go from A to B, say from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Bordeaux in the southwest of France. You might ...

Random quote ‘Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. David Hume (1711-1776...

Dutch government buildings in The Hague. At hte left the office of the Prime Minister (the "Little Tower").  Behind the office bui...

Random quote Great robbers punish little ones, to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, ...

The cave dweller: Portrait of a man as a prehistoric being. Collage by G.F. Potter, 1899.  Gelatin silver print and ink; photographed by me ...

Random quote Where there is no law, there is no freedom: for liberty is, to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot b...

Somewhere in his book Erasmus de Reiziger (Erasmus The Traveller), John Tholen writes: “Celebrities are often bombarded today by their fans...